Manned Spacecraft Center Progress Report, January-July 1969

Produced by the Houston-based A-V Corporation for NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), this government film reviews developments in its space program between January and July 1969, arguably “the most important period in the history of the Manned Spacecraft Center,” as the narrator puts it. After a brief overview of the Apollo 9 and 10 missions, the film quickly gets to the main event: Apollo 11, the first lunar-landing mission launched on July 16, 1969. The film also gives a good overview of Mission Control at the MSC. "If the spacecraft in flight is the heart of the mission," the narrator asserts, "the nerve center is this tense room of low modulated voices, muted flickering lights, and electronic hum." As for the actual mission, this film covers it from launch to lunar landing to splashdown, and then continues through to post-mission operations at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, including a brief look at the lunar research made possible by the Apollo 11 mission.